Based on his answers to the questions asked in the radio report and his comments on an article published in an agricultural newspaper, the Secretary General of MEGOSZ gives a short summary of his opinion on the topic indicated in the title
According to the semi-annual report of the Agricultural Economics Research Institute, the domestic agricultural machinery market increased by 1% compared to the same period in 2019. With the European market shrinking by around 5%, this modest growth is remarkable. Agriculture must also function during a pandemic, so input materials, machinery, equipment are needed. Domestic agricultural machinery factories operated continuously, during the epidemic time as well. Although there were some difficulties in the supply of raw materials, components and spare parts, these were also resolved flexibly, and no significant downtime took place. Reviewing domestic machine sales, we also find outstanding results. For example, domestic sales of harvester adapters increased significantly (by 68%) during the considered period. And in some months, trailer sales peaked. In both areas, the domestic machine factories are the market leaders in Hungary. According to a world market analysis carried out by the European Association of Agricultural Machine Dealers (CLIMMAR, Center de Liaison International des Merchands de Machines Agricholas et des Reparateurs), the annual growth rate of the world agricultural machinery market has been 4-5% for last decades.
The trend of world agricultural machinery market growth
This continuous linear growth reflects the need for machinery of agriculture. If there is a decline (as in 2009), then will be offset by higher growth in the coming years. This effect is also expected to follow in the wake of the pandemic crisis. If there is a decline (as in 2009), then will be offset by higher growth in the coming years. This effect is also expected to follow in the wake of the pandemic crisis. Somewhere this is supported by the opinion of agricultural machinery manufacturers. The European Agricultural Machinery Association (CEMA) conducts an ongoing representative survey to characterize the “business climate”. In this context, the assessment of factories in relation to current and future market prospects is measured. Interestingly, this indicator is currently better than last year!
The evolution of the “business climate”
Changes in machine supply indicators are therefore closely related to food supply. Therefore, the impact of agricultural machinery is significant not only in industrial aspects, but also in terms of the development of agricultural production. The outlook for the sector is relatively good as the export rate is around 80%! Although the national economic indicators of Hungarian agricultural machine production are more modest than those of some other sectors (e.g. the automotive industry). However, this sector plays an important role in the national economy due to, among other things, its crisis tolerance, its importance for industrial development, its connection to strategic food production. This was recognized even after the previous economic crisis, so we can hope that the national realisation of the development of agricultural machinery production will now actually take place!